The 2011 World Touring Car Championship held its eighth round - the championship's 15th and 16th races - at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Germany, during the last weekend of July. This was the last meeting before the championship's summer break, as it has no race on the calendar during the month of August as usual. Oschersleben has been one of the WTCC's regular fixtures since its inaugural season and it was the home event of BMW. In the past, the German manufacturer has had an overwhelming winning record in this track, and this year, it wrote a new chapter in the championship's history here.

The weather wasn't favorable over the race track, which is situated in the south-west of Magdeburg, throughout the week. Saturday began with a cold rain in the morning but it stopped later and the track surfaces were dried when the qualifying session got underway in the afternoon, while the sky was overcast.

The rain came back on Sunday morning and it was even colder than the day before. It was so cold that everybody at the track needed a thick jacket, despite the fact that it was at the end of July! Unfortunately, the rainfall didn't stop this time and Race 1 began at 11:20 a.m. on the heavy wet surfaces. The air temperature was 13.3 degree Celsius at that time of the day with the surfaces temperature at only 15.

The field departed for the rolling start, led by the Marshal Car. After a slow lap of 3.696km track, the Marshal Car left the track and the field, which now led by Yvan Muller's Chevrolet, went on from the final corner to the main straightaway. But the red signals didn't go off when they were approaching to the start line because of irregular line ups in the field. So the first attempt to start the race was aborted and the same thing happened at the end of next rolling lap, thus taking three laps to start the race with proper line ups.

At the third attempt, the race started successfully. Accompanying a thick cloud of water spray, the field entered Turn 1, the nearly right angled left hander, and as many as four cars, two Chevrolets of Muller and Robert Huff on outside with Gabriele Tarquini starting from the fourth grid on inside and Robert Dahlgren in Volvo between them, tried to get there abreast. Behind them, Tom Coronel also made a good start from the fifth grid and was watching for his opportunity to gain some positions.

When they applied brakes for the corner, Dahlgren made contact with Alan Menu who came close from behind and the Swede dropped to eighth. Among the leaders, two Chevrolet drivers already started to increase the gap with others during the opening lap and Tarquini won the fight with Coronel for the third place for now.

The heavy rain continued to fall and the conditions were tough for everyone but the two Chevrolets steadily pulled away from the rest of the field. At the end of Lap 5, Huff had a 2.004 second cushion to third place Tarquini, while the race leader, Muller, had already built a 4.339 second gap with his teammate! The Briton began to reduce the gap after that, which meant his margin to the Italian gradually became larger. Thus, in the second half of 14 lap race, the gap between leading two Chevrolet and the group fighting for third looked almost equal to the distance from Turn 1 to the start/finish line.

With the rain finally easing off during the final laps, Huff caught the tail of the Frenchman's Cruze and put heavy pressure throughout the last and 14th lap but it ended up in vain. As a result, Muller scored the third consecutive victory since the previous round and reduced the point gap with the championship leader, Huff, from fifteen to just eight.

The YOKOHAMA Trophy was won by Stephano D'Aste who had skipped the British round fortnight ago. In such difficult conditions, the ex-champion of the class fully displayed his skills on his way to the victory.

After an interval for supporting events, Race 2 got underway at 15:05 p.m. To almost everyone's delight, the rain had stopped during the interval and the surfaces had already dried when all cars sat on their assigned grids for the standing start for the second race. The pole position was given to Franz Engstler who had just turned 50 six days ago. He was followed by Tiago Monteiro in a SEAT Leon and Norbert Michelisz in a BMW.

The field went around the track for a formation lap and, after a few moment of quiescence, the red signals blacked out. It is a well-known fact that rear wheel drive BMWs have a certain advantage in this starting format and, between the two BMWs on the higher grids, Michelisz made a better getaway than Engstler on the pole position did. The Hungarian's BMW that colored in orange went through a space between Engstler and Monteiro and became the first one to reach Turn 1.

Watching the scene on the monitor screens, Michelisz's crew in their pit garage broke out cheering. However, at the same time, Kristian Poulsen and Mehdi Bennani had contact on the pit straight and both crashed into the concrete wall.

Since their cars were badly damaged and a lot of debris were scattered on the track, the Safety Car had to come out on Lap 2. As Michelisz looked to have a pace to keep his position from Engstler and Monteiro, many of his crew seemed to be frustrated that their driver would have to risk the lead position at restart after the Safety Car period.

The racing resumed from Lap 4. The two leading BMWs kept their positions when they went through the first corner but Monteiro's third place was taken over by Alan Menu. On the next lap, the Portuguese was involved in the fierce battle for fourth with another SEAT driver, Tarquini. The Italian got ahead of Monteiro on the straightaway just before they approached Turn 1 but the latter dove to the inside at the corner. In Turn 2, however, Monteiro had to be on the outside because it was a long right hander and, thus, Tarquini now secured the fourth place.

On Lap 6, Coronel, Huff and Muller came close to the Portuguese from behind on the straightaway. The BMW driver passed by Monteiro from the inside at Turn 1 and the Briton tried to follow the Coronel's path. With a slight contact, Huff and Monteiro went through the first corner side by side and now approached to Turn 2. Then, by taking the most outside line in Turn 1, Muller suddenly appeared on the inside of Turn 2 to outfox Coronel and Huff. The Frenchman's world championship level racecraft was really exciting to watch and he found himself running in sixth.

Meanwhile, the two YOKOHAMA Trophy contenders were still leading the race without being threatened their positions by the factory drivers in pursuit. But, surprisingly, Michelisz threw away the comfortable lead by spinning at Turn 13 of Lap 8 and handed the position to Engstler.

At the end of Lap 10, the German had a 1.106 second gap with Menu in second and continued to go on in a good pace. There was a tense moment on the next lap when his car went sideways a bit and had to take a wider line but his consistent drive paid off after all. The weaving checkered flag which he received first seemed to be celebrating not only his win but his 50th birthday as well!

Engstler's maiden overall victory in WTCC marked the first ever overall win by a non-manufacturer driver since the inception of the championship in 2005. On top of this, it was the first victory for the BMW's new 1.6 liter turbo engine. For the German veteran, these great achievements on his home soil must be the best birthday gift he had in his life.